


Fullmetal Alchemist Meta

by fullmetal anime (sunkelles)



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime 2003), Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types
Genre: Meta Essays, Nonfiction, thanks to the tumblr purge now i'm finally putting my meta on ao3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-09-07 12:06:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16853674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunkelles/pseuds/fullmetal%20anime
Summary: a few bits of meta on fma 03, a few on brotherhood, and a few comparing and contrasting the two.





	Fullmetal Alchemist Meta

**Author's Note:**

> i'll probably post more of these in the future but i'll make them new chapters

meta 1. 

 

i know that i talk about how great fma 03 is a lot but one of the BEST things is when the narration before the opening changes near the end of the series. for the first three openings it’s al talking about how they believed that equivalent exchange was the world’s one and only truth over a set of family photos but then after they find the philosopher’s stone the narration switches to ED talking about what the philosopher’s stone can do. i don’t think that there’s anything quite so chilling as ed saying “we searched for it, and we found it” over a picture of them now in the current day which wasn’t in the original picture montage and then it cutting to a shot of the empty, underground city that’s empty because dante and hohenheim killed everyone in it to  _make_  the philosopher’s stone. 

 

meta 2. 

 

i don’t know if i’d love the conqueror of shamballa ending as much as i do if brotherhood/manga didn’t exist with it’s traditional happy ending, but i really adore the ending of cos. it’s just such a strong message. we can’t keep going on like we and our problems are the center of the universe. we have to engage in the world and try to save it and make it a better place and think about the effect that our actions have on the world. 

the whole movie really was a lot of people caught up in their own heads and their own problems bringing about a terrible outcome (al trying to get ed back, noah trying to find her way to her utopia, wrath trying to get back to izumi, roy sealing himself off from the world and not helping, ed not really engaging in germany and the people around him because he wants to get back to amestris) but when he decided that he needed to do things for others he decided so wholeheartedly. he was the one that had to cross the gate and make sure that no one on either side of the gate suffers for that again, even if he has to give up his alchemy and his family and all chance of getting home again. 

and like, holy shit, that’s just so important to me? ed and al getting stuck on a different side of the gate but deciding “this is where i live now, and i want to live my life and make this world better” and not at all moping and stagnating and trying to fix things they can’t change like the first time around. them taking life by the horns and saying “the world sucks but i can make it better. this is my job”. it’s such a good way to end a series which main theme is overcoming sloth. i just really love the ending of cos. it’s so hopeful and it’s so full of humanity 

 

meta 3. 

 

i haven’t made a post about it before, but the different uses of the “why did you become a soldier, miss riza” talks in fmab vs. 03 are so interesting. in fmab it’s a very fragile and sweet interaction. tiny winry asking this woman who seems admirable and kind why in the world she would do the job she does. it even leaves enough of an impression on her for her to get her ears pierced because riza had them pierced. (at least in that ova) 

but in 03 it’s like the interaction’s been put through a fun house mirror. winry’s like sixteen years old and it’s been forever since her parents died, but the wound is fresh and bleeding again because she just found out who did it. she knows that roy did it, and RIZA knows that roy did it, and riza even has to acknowledge what happened when winry brings it up. 

they’re pretty direct about it, because they’re both direct characters, but there’s still the subtext. riza’s implication that if winry becomes one of the people that get in his way she’ll take her down, winry’s implication that maybe roy should be the one she’s aiming the gun AT. but mainly it’s just the same interaction in much, much harsher and more strained circumstances and it’s? good? 

it’s not better, just different, but it’s such an interesting way to twist and turn the same interaction from the manga into something different and darker. 

 

 

meta 4. 

 

i’ve seen some fma aus where they swap the villains with the different sets hommunculi and like, that doesn’t really work? at least not in the way that i read them.

dante’s homunuculi work so well for her because most of them weren’t her creations at all and were grasping for humanity in a world that wouldn’t have them, so she promised them something that she never could and never would give them. once father had himself a body i really don’t think that he’d bother? it seems like he would think that herding other people’s zombies and convincing them to do his bidding would be too much work and dare i say beneath him? 

then father’s homunculi worked so well because they were the parts of himself that he severed to try to become not a human but above one, and dante might want to be above humans but she wants that in order to have eternal life and good looks and a great time. she doesn’t want to be Far Above them like God TM. i think she’d find that boring. plus she doesn’t think that any of the sins inside of her were negative aspects and she wouldn’t remove them from her body. assuming that she’d tricked hoho into giving her an immortal form then i think that dante would be good. she’d just want to like, go out clubbing and have really great sex. maybe hate hoho and try to go after his family because he’s her ex and she hates him and she’s petty. girl didn’t really want to rule the world. 

 

 

meta 5. 

 

one difference that i find interesting between fma 03 and fmab is the fact that in fmab the souls in the philosopher’s stone are blatantly made to still be sentient (at least sentient enough to still be hurting). while 03 is just as visceral in its creation of philosopher’s stone and the idea that the creation is a terrible and awe-provoking act, the aftermath is a less explored. sure that thing’s made out of dead people, but their souls aren’t shouting at you in pain. their souls probably aren’t even still there. the immorality is more in the creation of it than in the use of it. 

the fact that the philosopher’s stone is millions of people living in excruciating pain for other people’s selfish gain in fmab is just gut-wrenching 

 

meta 6. 

 

i love the homunculi in both anime versions of fma because they both are super interesting ways to explore wtf humanity is but from v different vantage points. 

fmab has homunculi that are definitely inhuman but long for humanity even as they reject it. and then they have that amazing possession plot with greed and ling and the interesting way that they parallel pride’s rebirth with ed’s own loss of his powers. 

fma 03 ties their homunculi directly into their human transmutation and makes them directly a result of characters’ actions and utilizes some of my favorite themes from frankenstein about the ethics of creating life and culpability in those situations. and of course manipulation and ignorance and manipulation  _of_  ignorance

 

meta 7

 

so i rewatched the last few episodes of fmab with my brother yesterday, and i was thinking about pride’s rebirth. because like, that’s weird, right? it doesn’t really make sense. my brother’s like “that’s not how babies work! it’s been two years and he was an itty bitty baby! he couldn’t grow to be like, six in that time!” and i’m like “yeah kid looked like a fetus how tf did that work”

and i’ve seen a lot of meta about how pride didn’t “deserve” a second chance, so i’m getting the feeling that pride’s reincarnation as a normal boy isn’t the most popular thing about fmab

so, here’s my own meta about that and why i think it’s narratively significant

might be long, rambly, and poorly put together. will probably try to reorganize my thoughts on this and make a better post at a later date.

okay, so i think the idea that fmab! ed’s primary “sin” is pride at this point has probably been analyzed to death. i’ll spare you that meta atm. (if i do make a better, more in depth post i’ll probably go into it there)

but at the end of the series when ed gives up his “pride”/alchemy/thing that makes him big special genius prodigy child, it’s treated as the natural conclusion. he’s giving up this power, but it does not matter to him any more. he wants his brother back more than he wants his alchemy. he wants to live and love and just be more than he wants his alchemy. at this point, he’s accepted that the things that he tried to do with his alchemy “playing god” indulging in his pride and thinking that he could do anything just wasn’t healthy. hell, if anything, he’s almost GLAD to give up his alchemy. please truth, take it away from me.

then he has to relearn how to live without this ability that he’s relied on his entire life (gestures wildly at the scene of ed’s terrible attempt at fixing the roof)

i think that since ed’s primary sin is pride and he’s been “reborn” without that, it was smart to parallel that with pride himself being literally reborn. pride is reborn as a normal human with no powers and seemingly no knowledge of what he was before. without the “familial” connections to either his father, father the homunculus or his “adopted” father the homunculus. without his powers. without all the things that he thought put him above humans. the only part that he’s left with was his relationship with his mom, which was the most human part of him the first time around (except, perhaps, his insecurity and desire to absorb others and get stronger. which, yeah, gross but pretty human. ambition’s a hell of a thing)

he desperately clawed for humanity in his last few moments, reaching out for ed’s body, and he got it? i dunno, i just think that watching pride himself lose his powers and have to grow up again, free of them and the shackles of his sin and his father and all of that is really good for ed’s story.

i don’t care all that much about pride as a character, but i do care about ed and i think that was done intentionally to parallel ed and his own new journey.


End file.
